Good as Goldsworthy

Artist: Andy Goldsworthy

Title: Pebbles, broken and scraped

Dimension: Unknown

“People do not realise that many of my works are done in urban places. I was brought up on the edge of Leeds, five miles from the city centre-on one side were fields and the other, the city.” — Andy Goldsworthy

This remarkable artist created this piece of work titled Pebbles Broken and Scraped. He is in the Environmental/ Land Movement. He extracts natural things from the nature to create his art work. His works embody the qualities— simplicity, profundity and inspirational. He loves nature, thus, he advocates protection and conservation for Mother Nature through his art work. His love for nature is the spirit of his works.

Yi Yuan and I selected this spiral structure made of pebbles, broken and scraped. We chose it because we felt that this piece of work was the most outstanding, in terms of contrast of colors, the grey and turquoise on the pebbles with the sandy hue of the beach and the texture of the pebbles due to scratches and the grainy surface of the beach. With the scratches on the pebbles, the art work looks as though it illuminates. These attributes serve to enhance the visual appeal of this art work. Since the pebbles were from the beach itself, both the spiral and sand complement each other very well, it is almost like as though the art work originally belongs to the beach, part of the landscape, which reminds me of Singapore’s East Coast Park and our aquatic ancestry. We used to be a fishing village and the sea and the beach used to be a common sight, part of the people’s life.

One look at the work, it is clear that the central focal point is the middle of the spiral, where the broken line starts and spirals outwards…

In the evening went to small
beach to work as the sun
went down - time the
completion of work with
sundown - broken stones
-cracked in two -not easy.
Scratched white around cracks
- made a sort of spiral which
suited this work - this is how
forms such as spirals/circles/balls
appear - out of the making and not
taken out there to be imposed

The above extract was taken out of Andy’s website, describing the process of making this piece of art.

I interpret the spiral as a journey. The spiral will only continue to spiral out in a similar fashion which can be liken to a long journey. Just like Singapore’s journey to independence. The scraped pebbles remind me of the people who had to eke out a living and scrape by life. Also, as it spirals out, it represents Singapore has to move on from its past and work towards a better future. Hence, with the sand as the background and the spiral motif, this artwork best fits in Singapore in terms of our history.

Also, as seen from a quote from a website on Andy,”For me looking, touching, material, place and form are all inseparable from the resulting work. It is difficult to say where one stops and another begins.” To me, the process of planning, thinking and searching for resources for his art work is likened to a spiral, whereby the start of the spiral is formed when Andy first had an inspiration. Then, as the planning goes on, the spiral continues to swirl outwards. The spiraling is never-ending even after Andy finishes his art work because like what he has said, “…looking, touching, material, place and form are all inseparable from the resulting work.” This is perhaps his definition of art making, as a journey, as a spiral. And the journey never ends, just like his passion for nature.

Just like Andy, Walter Demaria created the Lightning Field by placing steel rods in an open grass field. He waited until a thunderstorm approached and lightning struck the steel rods to take photographs of the moment when the lightning struck the steel rods. It created a visual spectacular when the lighting struck the steel rods. It was really as though the field was struck by lightning! The rods are used as the channel of communication or interaction between elements of nature. It is interesting as lightning can never strike a grassfield, but with Walter’s steel rods, it really did seem that the lightning phenomenally struck the field! While Andy explores nature by creating artwork from nature and his artworks decay, thus temporary, Walter explores nature by bringing elements of nature that do not interact naturally together. In other words, he defies nature by connecting lightning and grass together, two elements that cannot connect, by introducing a channel. He then documented the ‘phenomenon’ using photography.

Bringing back to Andy, photography is important in his work as his works are biodegradable. Because of this, it is of utmost importance to document his works, to prove that his works existed, before they decay and return to nature. Photographs last for a long time, thus, Andy uses photography in his work. Also, if he should document his works by painting pictures, then they would seem unrealistic as his works tend to be abstract-looking and do not ‘fit’ in with nature. Thus, photography gives a touch of realness in his works; the photos of artworks taken are more for the sake of recording evidence rather than for the purpose of art.